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How to List Categories into Two Columns in WordPress

Snippets by IsItWP

Are you looking for a way to list your categories but separate them into two columns? While there’s probably a plugin for this, we have created a quick code snippet that you can use to list categories into two columns in WordPress.

Instructions:

All you have to do is add this code to your theme’s index.php file:

<?php
      $cats = explode("<br />",wp_list_categories('title_li=&echo=0&depth=1&style=none'));
      $cat_n = count($cats) - 1;

      for ($i=0;$i<$cat_n;$i++):
            if ($i<$cat_n/2):
                  $cat_left = $cat_left.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
            elseif ($i>=$cat_n/2):
                  $cat_right = $cat_right.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
            endif;
      endfor;
?>

<ul class="left">
         <?php echo $cat_left;?>
</ul>
<ul class="right">
         <?php echo $cat_right;?>
</ul>

Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly add code snippets in WordPress, so you don’t accidentally break your site.

If you liked this code snippet, please consider checking out our other articles on the site like: 9 best WordPress auction plugins and how to set up download tracking in WordPress with Google Analytics.

Comments   Leave a Reply

  1. Nope, doesn’t work,

    Warning: Undefined variable $cat_left in…
    Warning: Undefined variable $cat_right in…

  2. Andrew Wilkerson June 17, 2019 at 12:18 pm

    Thanks for this, I was excited to try it out but I got a parse error when I pasted into my custom-snippets plugin I created from another one of your articles, I did double check everything but I am pretty new to all this sorry. unexpected >

    Maybe this code no longer works? I tried editing out the unexpected end but perhaps I need to clear the cache before reactivating?

  3. Andrew Wilkerson June 17, 2019 at 11:06 am

    Thanks Kevin,
    I knew I read this somewhere but had trouble finding it again when searching the snippet library it didn’t seem to come up.

    Perhaps I’m just going blind!
    I do have a habit of clicking Shazam on my phone when I really want Simplenote.

  4. This is great and works perfectly – thanks for sharing

    1. No problem Chris, glad to see you like the snippet.

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